Italian Self-Employment Visa Consulting

Our story

From frustrated applicants to trusted guides.

We are an Australian couple who successfully obtained the Lavoro Autonomo Libero Professionista visa for Italy—without lawyers, and without inside connections.

Chamber of Commerce approval in just 1.5 weeks
Questura (Police Headquarters) clearance in 3 days
Consulate visa issuance in 5 weeks

We work in completely different sectors, which meant navigating two separate professional categories, two sets of Italian requirements, and multiple public offices. That experience gave us a rare, practical understanding of how this process actually plays out for real people—not just on paper.

Our consulting is built on that firsthand experience. We help you understand what the system is likely to accept, where the real bottlenecks are, and how to decide if this path is genuinely right for you.

Australian couple's family walking in an Italian street after successfully obtaining the Lavoro Autonomo visa.

Why this visa

Why the Lavoro Autonomo visa is uniquely powerful.

The self-employment visa is one of the most demanding paths into Italy—but also one of the most flexible once you’re here. Unlike other visas, it is designed around your economic activity and gives you room to grow, pivot, and fully integrate.

Freedom vs. restriction at a glance

Visa Type	Primary Purpose & Flexibility	Key Restrictions
🇮🇹 Lavoro Autonomo	Maximum flexibility. Built for people who establish self-employment in Italy. You can work for yourself, later take on subordinate (employed) roles, and study.	Hard to obtain. Subject to strict annual quotas (Decreto Flussi) and in-country approvals (Nulla Osta).
💻 Digital Nomad / Remote	Lets you live in Italy while working for a non-Italian employer or clients.	Activity must remain primarily foreign-sourced. Not built for integrating into the local economy.
🎓 Student	Legally focused on study. Work is allowed only on the margins.	Work capped at 20 hours per week, limiting meaningful professional activity.
🏡 Elective Residence	For people with substantial passive income who want to live in Italy without working.	Work of any kind is prohibited, including remote work for foreign clients or employers.

Choosing the Lavoro Autonomo route means building a life in Italy anchored in your profession, not just your savings. That is exactly why the Italian system makes it difficult—but also why it’s worth approaching with a serious, well-planned strategy.

Roadmap

What the full journey actually looks like.

Your eligibility consultation sits at the very beginning of a longer path. Here’s the simplified, real-world sequence we help you plan around.

Phase 1

Eligibility, professional category and financial viability assessment.

Phase 2

In-country clearances and Nulla Osta from Italian authorities.

Phase 3

Visa D application at the Italian Embassy/Consulate in your country.

Phase 4

Arrival in Italy, Permesso di Soggiorno and practical set-up.

Reality check

Why this visa feels impossible from the outside.

Official guides make the process look linear. In practice, you are dealing with overlapping offices, local interpretation of national rules, and officials who rarely see applications like yours.

Local interpretation of national law

Immigration rules are set nationally, but your file is handled locally—Questura, Prefettura, municipalities, and sometimes regional bodies. Each office can interpret the same law differently, leading to extra requirements you will not find on any website.

Administrative silos & conflicting views

The Chamber of Commerce might accept your professional category, only for another office to see it completely differently. These internal contradictions are not your fault—but you need to know they exist and plan for them.

Officials with limited experience

Only a small number of self-employment visas are granted each year. Often, the person looking at your file has seen very few (or none) like it before. That lack of familiarity can create delays, extra questions, or requests that aren’t written anywhere.

The short version: you are not just “submitting forms”. You are navigating a live system with human interpretation. Being prepared—and realistic—changes everything.

How we help

Our two-phase consulting model.

We structure our support around the way the Italian system actually works, starting with a focussed eligibility consultation and then, for those who are truly viable, more involved support through the in-country phase.

Eligibility & strategy

Phase 1 consultation

€500 • 60 minutes • Online

A structured conversation that analyses your profession, income, savings, and timing against the real-world requirements we had to meet ourselves.

Profile, profession and financial review based on your answers.
Tailored outline of the likely path in your case (and where it may not work).
Clear, written summary of what we discussed, so you can decide how to proceed.

Deeper support

Phase 2 guidance

From €2,000 • By quote

For eligible clients who choose to continue, we can provide practical guidance through the in-country steps—staying within our role as consultants and not replacing any legal advice you may seek.

Help understanding Nulla Osta sequences, timing and registrations.
Support in preparing your documentation and planning your time in Italy.
Guidance based on what we have personally seen work in practice.

Payment is taken securely via Stripe (Charged by Smally Digital). You’ll receive an email confirmation and calendar invite with your consultation time.

The value of one hour

Why a €500 consultation is cheaper than a bad decision.

Free or low-cost “consultations” are often designed to sell you an expensive package—whether or not your case is realistic. Our role is the opposite: to give you a grounded, experience-based view before you commit.

Avoid costly dead ends

A flawed strategy can easily cost you thousands in translations, travel, and opportunity cost, only to end in a refusal. Our consultation is designed to flag those issues early, not gloss over them.

A clear, objective deep-dive

We walk through your profession, income, savings, and timing in detail, using the same lens that we had to apply to ourselves. You get clarity on what may work, what won’t, and what would need to change.

An honest “yes” or “no”

If we don’t think this path is realistic for you, we will say so. That might be disappointing in the short term—but it is far better than spending a year on a strategy that was never viable.

Questions

Frequently asked (and quietly worried) questions.

These are the kinds of questions people usually bring to their first call. If you recognise yourself in any of these, you’re not alone.

No. Many people complete the process without fluent Italian—but some basic understanding helps enormously.

In theory, much of the process can be done in English. In practice, many officials have limited English, and misunderstandings are common. Our goal is to help you anticipate those points so you aren’t blindsided by them.

It doesn’t have to—but it often does when people start without a clear strategy.

You can pay high legal fees for help with admin tasks (which still don’t guarantee a positive outcome), or you can put more effort into understanding the process and only paying for the support that actually moves you forward.

We focus on the latter: helping you make informed decisions, not outsourcing all the thinking.

It can be. The bigger issue isn’t usually the quota—it’s people never reaching the stage where their application can be properly counted against it.

Most applicants never get all the necessary in-country approvals in place. A well-prepared file has a much better chance, even if you are not first in line on day one of the year.

Yes, they exist. Bank accounts that require residency, registrations that require proof of income that you can’t earn until you’re registered, housing that needs a visa which depends on housing…

We can’t make those circles disappear, but we can explain what we had to do, where some people take calculated risks, and what tends to be acceptable in practice.

By treating this like a serious project, not a quick form.

You’ll need clear numbers, organised documentation, and a realistic plan for the weeks you’ll be in Italy completing the in-country steps. Our consultation is built to help you understand what that actually looks like, not just hand you a checklist.

That’s increasingly common, and it’s exactly where interpretation matters most.

The Italian system is more comfortable with traditional professions, but that doesn’t mean modern ones are impossible. The key is how your activity is framed, documented, and matched to local expectations.

No. The Lavoro Autonomo visa is an entry visa (Visa D). The final application and visa stamp happen at the Embassy or Consulate in your country of legal residence.

You must be outside Italy to complete that step. Our role is to help you understand how everything before that point needs to line up so the consulate can say “yes”.

Ready to get a clear answer on your chances?

If you’re serious about building a life in Italy through your profession—not just parking savings in a bank account—a single, focussed consultation can save you months of guessing.

Secure Stripe checkout (Charged by Smally Digital) • Confirmation + calendar invite sent immediately • Europe/Rome timezone